The Security Blanket

Sophia is an extremely restless sleeper.  She is up and down and turned around all through the night.  Which means that usually I am doing the same thing :/  We had a sleep study done a few months ago, because we haven't had one since her tonsils and adenoids were removed over a year ago, and things came back abnormal, but not alarming.  Sophia has moderate obstructive sleep apnea.  Sleep apnea is a disorder that occurs when a person's breathing is interrupted during sleep.  Obstructive sleep apnea is caused by a blockage of the airway, usually when the soft tissue in the back of the throat collapses during sleep.  According to our doctor, this happens in a lot of people, but having low tone, like Sophia does, doesn't help matters any.  During the sleep study there were 19 obstructive apneas recorded and 37 partial obstructions recorded.  Even though Sophia's airway isn't allowing the proper amount of air to pass continually through the night, her O2 stats stayed above 92% the whole night with a mean saturation of 98.7% for the night, which is good. 

So where do we go from here?  Well, her pulmonary doctor gave us 3 options: 1. we do nothing, except keep observing her sleep behaviors and have another sleep study done in a year to see how things have changed.  2. We start using Flonase nasal spray and Singular at night to help open up her airways.  And our third option was using a CPAP machine.  Which consists of a mask that fits over the nose and mouth and uses mild air pressure to keep the airways open.

We've decided to see exactly what this CPAP thing is all about and see if it is even something that Sophia will tolerate.  If I had to guess I would say, no.  But we'll see.  After all she does have the tendancy to surprise me :)  I'm really not sure about the Flonase/Singular idea.  The doctor acted like it was another simple option, but some of the things that I've read, I'm not so sure I want to give her either one of these.  Anyone have any thoughts or insight on either drug???   

Overall when Sophia sleeps I don't notice a lot of alarming behaviors.  I mainly just notice that she is all over the place and constantly getting up through the night, making it a very long night most of the time.  This has always been my main concern, why is she always waking up and getting up throughout the night?  Is it because she isn't breathing well and waking herself up and then getting out of bed?  That could be some of the reason, but her doctor also pointed out, that we all wake up throughout the night, sometimes numerous times throughout the night, and we look around our surroundings, notice that everything is fine, and then go back to sleep.  Well when Sophia wakes up in the middle of the night, and looks around her surroundings, she is noticing that I am no longer there laying beside her, like I was when she first fell alseep.  Which for her is a big, red flag and she instantly must come find out where I am.  Because this little girl needs her securtiy blanket snuggled up nice and close to her at night.  Myself being Sophia's security blanket :/  I don't want to be her nighttime security blanket!!  Sorry, but I just don't.  So now I am back to trying to get her back into the habit of falling asleep solo, which at one time was not a problem, but apparently somewhere along the way, things changed.  It's a work in progress right now, but I have faith that this security blanket can break free and hopefully regain my rights to a full nights sleep, mostly uninterrupted and in my own bed for the night! 

Just Dance Baby!

Sophia was high on life, and music, and gave her "audience" quite the performance last night :)

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Bye, Buddy

Buddy the Elf showed up in our house for the first time this holiday season.  He really didn't cause a lot of trouble, not like some of the other Elves we've heard about....until the final countdown to Christmas.  With 7 days remaing until Christmas, Buddy decided to spice things up and go out with a bang. 

 

 

Buddy toilet papered our Christmas tree!

 

 

Buddy added a few touches to some of our photos.

 

Buddy reading a nice story about Barney to some of Jayden's pez.

 

 

Barricading Jayden in her room with some of Sophia's blocks.

 

 

Ziplining his way down to the playroom....

 

...to destroy it!

 

Buddy turned our milk GREEN.

 

Buddy took all of our ornaments off of our tree.

 

Hang on Captain America!

 

Even though Buddy caused some mischief his last week with us, we still really enjoyed having him here and are looking forward to his return back from the North Pole after Thanksgiving next year! 

Twinkle, Twinkle, My Little Star

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Emotions running high today.

I'm not really sure where I want to go with this post, or even where to start.  I didn't hear about Friday's shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary until early that afternoon, when I was sitting waiting on Jayden's Holiday Sing Along to start.  It wasn't until later when I got home and started reading about what happened that my heart ached for those children and their families, for the school and that community.  How does this happen?  What kind of sick monster does something like this to innocent CHILDREN!  I don't know?  I have no answers myself, but have read over and over again these past few days about gun control and mental illness and more security at schools, but what is the answer to ending such evil in our society?  I have no idea. 

This morning I got my girls ready for school, like normal, and was feeling ok.  I got Sophia on the bus and then got in the car to take Jayden to school and that's when it hit me.  As I pulled up to the school and into the circle drive, my emotions hit me like a ton of bricks.  I'm about to let my oldest baby out of my sight and send her into what is supposed to be a safe place, but from what we heard on Friday, it isn't.  I saw the kids running inside and walking down the hall in bunches that had just gotten off the bus.  I looked over at Jayden axiously waiting for me to stop so she could jump out of the car and go see her classmates and friends and her teacher, completely oblivious to the events that happened to kids her age just a few days prior.  She was happy and excited about another day at school and all I could do was hold the tears back long enough to give her one last hug and kiss goodbye for the day.  The thought of sending my babies off to school for a few hours and then never being able to hold them again, makes me want to die inside.  My deepest condolences and prayers go out to each of the victim's families.  I can only imagine the heartbreak that is going on in that community today. 

Out of everything that I've read these past three days, one thing I know for sure is that God is with my babies each and every second of each and every day.  Just because my children don't learn about religion or say prayers at school, the God that I believe in, would never abandon them in their time of need.  God is with my children every where they go.  That's what I believe.  I have to believe that, because if I didn't, then I would never feel safe leaving my children's side for a moment.  All I know for sure today, is that getting Sophia off the bus and picking Jayden up from school today, can not get here fast enough.  I am feeling things today that I really didn't expect to feel, but my emotions are definitely running high today.     

 

    

A little this and a little that.

I'm back :)  I told you October totally wipes me out and blogging is almost the last thing I feel like doing this time of year.  But I thought I'd check in and share some pictures on my blog.  November was a pretty slow month for us, which is always nice coming out of October, which is always a very busy month for us!  Now with December in full swing and Christmas right around the corner, our calendar is filling up again, but honestly, I like it that way!

 

Jayden and Sophia taking a break at the park for a photo :)

Out enjoying an unseasonably nice day.

Sophia trying to ride Shelby dog :)

The good ole stomach bug hit our house a few weeks ago, HARD.  It first took out Sophia, then hit Jayden, then Randy and finally me.  Lucky for me, I got the better end of the deal than the rest of them, but it was not a pretty 4 days at the Russell house :/.  So glad that's behind us!

Jayden showing off her loot from her first WWE live event.  I don't know for sure how she got into this whole wrestling thing, but it cracks me up listening to her talk about it!

Sporty Sophia ready to play some ball out at Great Grandma and Grandpa's house on Thanksgiving.  I was so excited to get her into a soccer program this spring through the UPWARD program at one of our local churches, but unfortunately kids with special needs have to be 5 before they can start playing :(  She's one heck of a kicker now, she's going to tear it up in two years!

Just clowning around :)

I found these charts and reward bucks at the Dollar Tree a few weeks ago and thought, for $3 maybe something like this would help Jayden with responsibility and keeping her attitude in check a little better.  So far so good.  The top chart is a behavior chart and whenever she starts getting disrespectful or out of line, she gets a "strike."  Four strikes and she doesn't get a check on the job chart for being respectful that day.  I started giving her 7 "jobs" to do daily.  Some of them are things she has to do regardless, like brushing her teeth and hair, but it's how long it takes her to do them after being told that I'm looking at.  We struggle in the mornings sometimes with Jayden not wanting to get up and get ready.  So I tell her once, go get dressed, brush your teeth and brush your hair.  Then I set the timer for 10 minutes and if she does it within that time, she gets a check and a reward buck for doing each in a timely manner.  Anyway, long story short, she has the opportunity to earn 7 reward bucks per day, 35 per school week.  So when she earns 35 reward bucks, she can cash those in for $5.  We started this last week and she messed around a few mornings and didn't stay on task and lost the chance for some bucks, but as of  today, she has earned her $5.  We're not expecting her to do keep up on the weekends, for right now, but we're still in the beginning stages of this and I must say I'm pretty pleased with how things are going so far :)

At the children's museum one Sunday afternoon :)

We got a cute picture of the girls before heading out to our Down syndrome playgroup Christmas party this Saturday, which was so much fun!  It's rare to see Jayden in anything "girly", but she was a trooper and I appreciate it :)

Thankful

It's so easy to forget how blessed we truly are.  With lifes craziness and the stresses of day to day living, sometimes I let my good fortunes slip right past my mind.  I have so many things in my life to be thankful for, and even though I am thankful all year round, this time of year just really makes me stop and think about all the blessings I have in my life..... 

1. My children.  My girls mean everything to me.  They are the best things that I have ever done with my life.  I am so thankful each and every day to have been able to be a mother....their mother.

2. My husband.  He is my rock.  He makes me feel safe and secure.  I am thankful that he came into my life and has stood by me and loved me and supported me unconditionally all of these years.

3. My family and friends.  I am thankful for the amazing support system that we have in our life.  I have so many people that I can count on and would be there anytime we needed them. 

4. Being a stay at home mom.  The one thing in life that I've always known I've wanted to be and been the most passionate about, was being a mother.  And I am so very thankful that I have been able to stay at home with my girls and watch them grow.
 
5.  Randy's job.  My husband works hard for our family.  He was been very lucky to have kept a steady job since he started his career 9 years ago.  He carries our family on his back financially, which is very hard to do most of the time, and I am very thankful for that.

6.  A place to live and food to eat.  As long as I can remember I've never been hungry and I've always had a place to live.  I've never went days without food, or wondered where my next meal was going to come from, or went to bed in an unknown place, cold and scared.  It's heartbreaking to hear of so many children, children that my kids go to school with, that don't know when they might eat again after they leave school.

7. My families health.  Even though we have went through some unhealthy periods in life, some worse than others,  I am thankful that right now, today, my family is healthy.

8.  Understanding and compassionate strangers.  In a world where everyone seems to be living in the fast lane and looking out for number 1, I'm thankful for those people who smile and say "hi!" to me when I walk by.  I'm thankful for the person who holds open the door and patiently waits for me to walk through it.  I'm thankful for the people who see the beauty in my youngest daughter and understand that her life is worth living. 

9. Faith.  I'm thankful for my belief in God.  I don't go to church on Sundays or pray daily, but I believe that all good things come from up above.  My faith has gotten me through some very difficult times in my life and I've come to realize that without my faith in God, I never would have made it.
 
10. My life.  I'm thankful that my birth mother chose life for me.  I'm thankful that my mom and dad gave me a life full of love.  I'm thankful for the education I received and for the opportunities that I have been given to make me the person that I am today.  I am thankful for the people who have been a part of my life, either for a short time or a long time, but who have helped me to grow as an individual.  I am thankful to be right where I am today.